The present invention refers to an arrangement for milking of animals, including a number of milking stations, each milking station including a set of teatcups to be attached to the animal to be milked, a local milk-collecting unit, a local milk discharge conduit and a local feeding member; a central milk-receiving unit; and at least a first main milk conduit connectable to each local milk discharge conduit for the transport of milk from each milking station to the central receiving unit. The invention also refers to a method for milking of animals.
In big milking installations including a large number of milking stations, it is a difficult task to provide a proper transport of the milk to a common tank for storage and cooling of the milk. The milk delivery conduits have to be relatively long. Complex equipment is needed at the common milk storage and cooling tank in order to obtain a proper cleaning of the milking arrangement.
It is known to use the vacuum of a milking plant for transporting the milk to a milk-receiving unit. However, transporting milk by vacuum makes it necessary to provide a transport conduit that is filled by milk or any other liquid, such as washing liquid. The vacuum transport will not function when the conduit is not full across its diameter. It is also known to draw the milk by vacuum from a number of milking stations to a common milk line. The milk line is sloping to permit further transport of the milk to a releaser jar by means of gravity.
EP-A-516 246 discloses a milking arrangement including a number of milking stations and a central cooling tank for receiving and storing the milk extracted at the milking stations. The milking stations are connected to the cooling tank via a common re-circulation line. The milk is transported through the re-circulation line by means of a common pump.